One Man and a Horse: The Mobile Library Trend

Just last week we wrote about artist Raul Lemesoff and his mobile library in Argentina. This week we’re taking a look at another mobile library, this time in Java, Indonesia, run by one father and his horse.

In 2004, the number of illiterate adults in Indonesia was 15 million. In 2011, that number has been drastically reduced to 6.7 million. It is clear that Indonesia is making great strides to improve education and decrease illiteracy rates.

But in rural regions, there are still hundreds of thousands of illiterate adults, who have few options for education or school. Even the children in these rural regions have difficulty rising above literacy levels seen in bigger cities like Jakarta. That’s why Ridwan Sururi, father and working man, decided to use one of his working horses to begin a mobile library. Several times a week he loads up a carrying case on the horse with books, and brings them village to village, and to his daughter’s school, to provide his neighbours with reading material—all which has been provided through donations from friends and family.

Says Sururi: “”I hope I can have a small library in front of my house, but I know it is only a dream.”

With all the publicity his story is getting, it likely won’t be a dream for long!

Mr. Sururi’s horse library isn’t the only mobile library making waves in Indonesia. The organization SOS Children’s Villages USA has their very own mobile library truck, that circles around Java with educators who provide free reading to local children, and allow them to borrow books.